Bryant Larson was the skipper of PT109 immediately before command was given to JFK. Larson, along with executive officer Lennie Thom and the crew, had been fighting around Guadalcanal during the heaviest of action.
As he was being rotated home, he was leaving Kennedy with a boat that had unreliable engines and no crew. Only Thom remained from the force serving under Larson.
[3, p. 533-34]